Summer 2015: Crick 2

Saturday 16th May to

 We have now been told that we have a choice of fields in which to park our cars while the boat show is going on, we can park near the gate, or we can park in the field behind the office. The gate is our best bet, because it is much shorter walking distance from the village.

 Already two huge marquees have been erected in the field nearest to where we will be parking our car. Quite a few boats have been moved from the main marina, some of them are now in our one, but not as many as we expected.

 The towpath opposite the marina has also been designated as moorings for the show. The show lasts for three days and, according to a boater we spoke to on the bus a few days ago, this is costing £150.00 per boat. What!! Fifty quid a day!! When we moored at Bulbourne some years ago, we paid that much per month.

 Yesterday we took the longest walk possible around the village, and boy, did I know it later. Today will probably be considerably shorter.

 Sunday 17^th May

 We’re off to Junction 1 today; where all the big stores hang out; for a look around Maplin’s to see if I can find the necessary stuff to extend the lead on the antenna. We also want to pop into The Range to see what they do by way of doggie stuff. It’s a beautiful morning and we hope it will stay that way.

 I’ve finished Alan’s cartoon, which means I can now plan a website and new blog and, with luck and a tail wind, perhaps I’ll make some money. Not too much mind, I don’t want to upset the taxman!!

 Monday 18^th May

 This Bank Holiday weekend sees the 2015 Crick Boat Show and what a show it will be judging by the amount of marquees being erected, in the field that was used for parking way back when we bought our boat. They are even building a temporary bridge across the canal, no doubt to give easy access to those boaters who have paid to moor alongside the towpath. We haven’t been to the show since 2006 and are quite looking forward to it, especially as we don’t have to pay.

  Wednesday 20^th May

 Yesterday was a right pig weather wise, with several big downpours of hailstones. Fortunately we weren’t walking up to the village at the time. However, I did have to ask Alex to cross his legs until it had finally passed over.

 We now have light rain, but that shouldn’t be a problem by the time we walk up to the shops.

 Friday 22^nd May

 We’ve had some heavy rain over the past few days and we’ve suffered several blasts of hailstones. Looking at the state of the field where we now leave our cars, it will soon be something of a quagmire and we’ll have trouble moving our cars.

 The Boat Show will be huge this year; there are so many tents and marquees about that delivery lorries are finding it difficult to turn around when they need to leave.

 I received message from Andy and Sandy saying that they’ll probably be along to the show on Sunday, and I’ve already had our quota of freebies, so they’ll have to pay their way. Goodness knows how Alex will react to their Collie Taz!!

 Today we’ll be taking the bus into Rugby, rather than move the car and risk being bogged down, otherwise we might have gone over to Daventry.

 Sunday 24^th May

 The first day of the Crick Boat Show went off well yesterday, with dry and sunny weather all day. However, according to the weather forecast it’s quite likely to rain today and, by the way those clouds are building up, it wouldn’t surprise me at all. Andy and Sandy are supposed to be coming down from Willington this morning, so I hope the rain keeps off until they’ve enjoyed the show.

 Tuesday 26^th May

 Well, the Boat Show is over for this year and all is now quiet. The only real problem we’ve had while it’s been going on has been the difficulty on accessing the Internet. We have our WiFi unit connected to an antenna; specifically designed for this unit; which sits on a 2ft pole on the roof, and still we have trouble. No doubt it’s affected by all the boats around us, but it’s still a darned nuisance.

 We usually experience problems with the mobile too but, whilst walking around the show on Saturday my sister phoned and we had no problems at all. Hopefully, once all the displays and ‘for sale’ boats have left and the boats in our marina have been moved back to the main one, all will improve, especially where the Internet is concerned.

 This Friday I’ll be going down to Harlow for the day and will enjoy a couple of drinks with Alan, who has managed to chop off the top of a finger. Now doubt he’ll tell me all about it when I get there.

 Wednesday 27^th May

 Our day by day breakfast looks something like this: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday – toast or cereal: Wednesday and Saturday – crumpets: Sunday – boiled eggs and soldiers. Today is Wednesday and, for the first time in living memory, we don’t have enough crumpets; Sheila has two and I have three, but we only have three. Disastrous, or it would be had Wifey not volunteered to have cereal.

 Yesterday we rubbed down the paintwork on the back doors and surrounding panelling, along with the big box that houses the gear lever. Sheila then applied rust preventative to the damaged parts, and she’ll do the same again today, ready for a couple of coats of green. Hopefully we will be able to complete the stern deck paintwork by the middle of next week, and then we’ll go off cruising for a few weeks.

 Friday 29^th May

 I’m going down to Harlow today and, I suppose I had to expect it, it’s raining. This also means Wifey won’t be able to continue with painting the stern deck. Still, I’ve no doubt she’ll manage to keep herself occupied.

 While I’m in Harlow I’ll be looking for a car battery solar charger, because I don’t want to be cruising for several weeks, only to find I have a flat battery when we return.

 Monday 1^st June

 Whooppee! Summer is here at last, although you could be forgiven for thinking otherwise. Here at Crick Marina we have a cloudy sky and a chilly wind, what’s summery about that?

 Back in early February; the 2^nd of to be precise; I received an email from the lady who purchased a mobile phone from me. She was very happy with said phone, although she was somewhat concerned that it wasn’t unlocked from Vodaphone. So, although she seemed happy at the time, I thought perhaps that she simply didn’t want to take the time and effort in returning it, so I offered to accept it as a return. She declined and I thought no more about it, until this morning that is.

 Three months after receiving and accepting the mobile, she now tells me it’s faulty and is threatening to contact eBay for compensation. With the best will in the world I fail to see how I can be blamed for that state of affairs and, in an attempt at showing complete fairness, I have suggested she have the phone checked out. She’s even suggesting that the new screen I had fitted might be to blame. It should be interesting to see what happens next. Fortunately I have retained her earlier emails and, what’s more, so do eBay.

 Today we’ll be going shopping at Sainsbury’s and, I have no doubt, returning with a trolley and a couple of bags full of goodies. Our fridge is looking pretty vacant at present and we’ve been relying on the local Co-op during the Crick Boat-show and beyond, so it will be good to see a full refrigerator again.

 Thursday 4^th June

 Yesterday was quite a fine day, so we decided to carry out our monthly checks on the engine, batteries and heater. Naturally, that was after we walked to the C0-op for the paper and had our coffee and biscuits upon our return.

 The first job then was topping up the batteries with water. Now, when we paid a visit to the Crick Boat Show, we bought a battery filler bottle. This is made such that, by inserting the spout into the battery cell and waiting for the gurgling to stop, you know when that cell has enough water.

 So, I’m just about to top the bottle up to fill the last of the batteries, when the bottle top fell off the deck and into the water. That’s £18 up the Swanee!! As if that wasn’t enough of a problem, we also didn’t have enough water to complete the task, so we had to drive over to Halford’s in Daventry. I finally finished the batteries using an old hydrometer that I found in the engine bay.

 Job done, but at great expense.

 Friday 5^th June              

 Ever since I upgraded our dongle to a WiFi unit; sometime last year I think; we’ve had nothing but problems with the Internet and emails. We even bought an antenna to try and improve the situation, but that’s proved to be pretty useless.

 Yesterday morning, whilst Wifey was out having her hair cut, I tried setting up the old dongle, but that wouldn’t work with the SIM from the WiFi. I tried the dongle first, because it only needs to be connected to a power source, or the laptop, for it to work, whereas the WiFi has an on/off switch.

 Now, since it doesn’t seem to matter where the WiFi is positioned, inside the boat, or if the antenna is fitted to it, or not, I decided to attach it to the pole on the roof and see how that went. Whilst I do have to switch it on and off, it does seem to work better and faster. So, at least while we are here at Crick, that’s the arrangement I’ll be sticking to.

 There’s only one thing more to do to see how the WiFi behaves when I access the Internet, and that’s to try posting this blog.

 Have a great weekend.

 Cheers me dears.

 Dave, Sheila and Alex.

 

 

 

Summer 2015: Crick 1

Friday 24^th April to Saturday 16th May

 Tuesday 28^th April

 Upon our return to Crick last Thursday, I immediately contacted Dave, our engineer, to let him know we were home. After that it was simply a case of tracking him down and arranging for him to check our batteries out, which he did on Friday morning.

 It was then arranged for him to come by on Monday morning, so as to decide when to change to change the batteries over. As it happened, I tracked him down elsewhere in the marina, and he suggested I go along to Midland Chandlers at Braunston and buy the batteries, which we did later in the morning.

 I’m now expecting him to come along this morning and do the necessary.

 Wednesday 29^th April

 Dave came along yesterday and changed our batteries. So far, so good. However, when it came to checking everything was OK, it wasn’t. We had no indication of the state of the starter battery on our Distribution Panel. It took a goodly amount of time before he found a loose connection, which happens sometimes when playing with electrics. Eventually all was well and life returns to normal.

 In a couple of weeks he’ll be along again to connect up our immersion heater, which will save considerably on diesel.

 Saturday 2^nd May

 Took the bus into Rugby on Thursday morning then, in the afternoon, we had a good sort out of clothes. It’s surprising how old bit of clothing is replaced by new, but the old lies around for ages before it’s parcelled up and recycled. In this instance we have a black sack full to take over to the recycling bin in Daventry, which we’ll do sometime next week, on a day when we can take the car out and have some chance of getting back in the carpark.

 Yesterday we made a start on the cupboards and managed to throw out some useless items and fill a shopping bag with stuff for the charity shop. All in all a pretty successful couple of days.

Today, after lunch, we’ll make a start on our bookshelves, which are also overloaded with useless tat, all of which needs to be sitting on a charity shop shelf. We could be pretty busy next week.

 Sunday 3^rd May

 Yesterday was a pretty good day weather-wise, which is more than can be said for last night and this morning, when it’s been raining for most of the time. It has stopped now, but it looks like there’s more to come.

 We have a multi-shelf book case that sits behind our armchairs, and these are what we sorted out yesterday, after our coffee and biscuits of course. After completing this necessary chore, I was amazed at the pile of books we were throwing out. I was even more amazed when I compared that pile to the spaces left over. Somehow I didn’t believe all those books could have been in there!!

 Anyway, we took some of them over to the site wash room, which has book shelves and works on the basis of, take a book and replace it with another one.

 Now, as if that wasn’t enough exercise for one day, we decided to take a walk before lunch. The initial aim was to walk along the towpath to Crick Tunnel and then turn around and make our way back. However, being the adventurous couple that we are, we took a pathway leading up to some fields and followed the Public Footpath signs.

 This all looked innocent enough but, by the time we had completed the walk; which finished at our local Post Office; we had crossed five fields and six stiles. With my dodgy legs that was no mean feat, I can tell you. Still, we all need exercise, but I think I’ll give that particular walk a miss in future.

 Tuesday 5^th May

 Yesterday morning, after our usual walk to the shops for the paper, we set to and sorted out all the gumph under my side of the dinette, and what a load of gumph there was too.

 After re-packaging the books and such from yesterday’s effort, we now had a load more books to sort out. We also had quite a bit of junk too, which went into the skip.

 Today we plan on driving over to Daventry to dispose of the old clothing, along with books and such to the local charity shops.

 I’m not sure when we’ll be tackling Wifey’s side of the dinette, but I don’t suppose we’ll be in the mood for it after our trip to Daventry.

 Thursday 7^th May

 We’ve had two days of horrid weather but, at last it seems to have settled down now. We had a clear out of Wifey’s side of the dinette yesterday, and now we have to take it the stuff we don’t want into Rugby this morning.

 Dave Hull should be along on Monday to wire up our Immersion Heater.

 Saturday 9^th May

 Yesterday, with not much planned regarding clearing out the boat, we took Alex over to Daventry Country Park and then settled down for a lazy day.

 Sunday 10^th May

 We met Pauline as we were walking through the village and asked if she and Chris would like to join us at the club today. She said she would have words with Chris, but that it would mean staying longer than they had planned. Sadly they decided to get moving along. However, they will be back for the Boat Show, so we might see them again.

 Monday 11^th May

 Dave Hull should be coming around to connect up our Immersion Heater this morning. Although, having said that, there’s really no telling when that will be. He’s so busy and so popular that there’s no telling what else he has on today.

 Yesterday we ran into a bit of good luck; which makes a nice change when you consider the amount of money we’ve had to shell out of late. As usual, it being a Sunday, we strolled up to the club for a couple of drinks and some snacks. We had just sat down when, out of the blue, our barmaid came over and told us we’d won the meat raffle. This is drawn every week and I usually put in a couple of quid.

 So, we waited until we were about to leave and then called Wendy over and asked her to get our prize out of the freezer. Well, the last time we won anything there was a £10 voucher for the butchers shop in a village some distance away. This time however, we had won a 3.0Kg tray of huge pork chops.

 When we got them back to the boat and waited for them to defrost, we found we had eight of them. So, we now have a pork dinner for almost every day this week. Can’t be bad, can it??

 Today, after Dave has sorted out the Immersion Heater, we’ll probably take a run over to Daventry and dispose of the rest of our rubbish.

 With the Crick Boat Show looming we’ve all been told to remove our cars from our car park to the main one. It seems that the people setting up the displays need our car park for their trucks and things. Later on and prior to the show starting, everybody will have to move their cars to one of the outlying fields. Actually, we’re quite looking forward to the show. The last time we attended was when we found the boat we now live on.

 Tuesday 12^th May

 Dave turned up to wire in our Immersion Heater yesterday which, due to its awkward location, took him about two hours. We let it run for a further hour +, but still no hot water came through.

 At that point we switched it off and took Alex for a walk and, just as we were heading towards the gate, along came Dave and he wasn’t happy with the news. Mind you, that Immersion had been there since 2009, so perhaps it’s no good now.

 Later in the evening, just as we were climbing into bed, Sheila imparted some pearls of wisdom; which I have since emailed to Dave. She tells me that this Immersion Heater MUST be wired into the landline mains and CAN’T be used whilst cruising.

 Now, we know that he actually took a spur off the washing machine switch; assuming, no doubt, that this was also wired to landline mains, when in fact it is wired to the Inverter/Charger.

 These pearls of wisdom I have also imparted to Dave, who probably won’t be happy. It may well be that this makes no difference, but I have a sneaky suspicion that………….!!!

 Anyway, we’ll see what he has to say when he gets here this morning.

 Thursday 14^th May

 Dave arrived on Tuesday morning and discovered that the reset button on the immersion heater had popped out. This meant that, just for a change, the boating gods were smiling upon us, because we didn’t have to pay for a new one. Hallelujah brother!!!

 Yesterday we drove over to Daventry, topped up with petrol, disposed of a trolley load and a bag full of books, then popped into Tesco for a wee bit of shopping and the latest Eric Clapton disc.

 Today we’ll be taking the bus into Rugby to top up with books from charity shops.

 Already the people are arriving to set up for the forthcoming Boat Show. Our small car park has been taken over and we’ll all be moving our cars to nearby fields. We all hope it will be dry on the weekend of the show.

 Later…… Well, we popped into town, visited a few charity shops, did a wee bit of shopping, had a coffee and tea cake at our favourite coffee shop, and managed to catch the next bus back.

 It’s now 3 pm and raining quite hard, but we really do need to walk the dog and visit the office, so wet weather gear on and off we go.

 But first I’ll post this blog and wish you a very pleasant Friday and weekend.

 Saturday 16^th May

 Ooops! Our Internet signal wasn’t up to much on Thursday and I was unable to post this blog. I have since re-erected the antenna that goes with the WiFi Unit and it is now much stronger. I suppose that being surrounded by so much metal the signal gets bounced around. At present we don’t have a boat next to us on the antenna side, although that will probably change if many more boats are moved from the main marina.

So, without further ado I’ll wish you a great weekend and try again.

 All the best from Dave, Sheila and Alex.

 

 

Winter 2014/15: Crick 15

Friday 24^th April to Thursday 14^th May

 Tuesday 28^th April

 Upon our return to Crick last Thursday, I immediately contacted Dave, our engineer, to let him know we were home. After that it was simply a case of tracking him down and arranging for him to check our batteries out, which he did on Friday morning.

 It was then arranged for him to come by on Monday morning, so as to decide when to change to change the batteries over. As it happened, I tracked him down elsewhere in the marina, and he suggested I go along to Midland Chandlers at Braunston and buy the batteries, which we did later in the morning.

 I’m now expecting him to come along this morning and do the necessary.

 Wednesday 29^th April

 Dave came along yesterday and changed our batteries. So far, so good. However, when it came to checking everything was OK, it wasn’t. We had no indication of the state of the starter battery on our Distribution Panel. It took a goodly amount of time before he found a loose connection, which happens sometimes when playing with electrics. Eventually all was well and life returns to normal.

 In a couple of weeks he’ll be along again to connect up our immersion heater, which will save considerably on diesel.

 Saturday 2^nd May

 Took the bus into Rugby on Thursday morning then, in the afternoon, we had a good sort out of clothes. It’s surprising how old bit of clothing is replaced by new, but the old lies around for ages before it’s parcelled up and recycled. In this instance we have a black sack full to take over to the recycling bin in Daventry, which we’ll do sometime next week, on a day when we can take the car out and have some chance of getting back in the carpark.

 Yesterday we made a start on the cupboards and managed to throw out some useless items and fill a shopping bag with stuff for the charity shop. All in all a pretty successful couple of days.

Today, after lunch, we’ll make a start on our bookshelves, which are also overloaded with useless tat, all of which needs to be sitting on a charity shop shelf. We could be pretty busy next week.

 Sunday 3^rd May

 Yesterday was a pretty good day weather-wise, which is more than can be said for last night and this morning, when it’s been raining for most of the time. It has stopped now, but it looks like there’s more to come.

 We have a multi-shelf book case that sits behind our armchairs, and these are what we sorted out yesterday, after our coffee and biscuits of course. After completing this necessary chore, I was amazed at the pile of books we were throwing out. I was even more amazed when I compared that pile to the spaces left over. Somehow I didn’t believe all those books could have been in there!!

 Anyway, we took some of them over to the site wash room, which has book shelves and works on the basis of, take a book and replace it with another one.

 Now, as if that wasn’t enough exercise for one day, we decided to take a walk before lunch. The initial aim was to walk along the towpath to Crick Tunnel and then turn around and make our way back. However, being the adventurous couple that we are, we took a pathway leading up to some fields and followed the Public Footpath signs.

 This all looked innocent enough but, by the time we had completed the walk; which finished at our local Post Office; we had crossed five fields and six stiles. With my dodgy legs that was no mean feat, I can tell you. Still, we all need exercise, but I think I’ll give that particular walk a miss in future.

 Tuesday 5^th May

 Yesterday morning, after our usual walk to the shops for the paper, we set to and sorted out all the gumph under my side of the dinette, and what a load of gumph there was too.

 After re-packaging the books and such from yesterday’s effort, we now had a load more books to sort out. We also had quite a bit of junk too, which went into the skip.

 Today we plan on driving over to Daventry to dispose of the old clothing, along with books and such to the local charity shops.

 I’m not sure when we’ll be tackling Wifey’s side of the dinette, but I don’t suppose we’ll be in the mood for it after our trip to Daventry.

 Thursday 7^th May

 We’ve had two days of horrid weather but, at last it seems to have settled down now. We had a clear out of Wifey’s side of the dinette yesterday, and now we have to take it the stuff we don’t want into Rugby this morning.

 Dave Hull should be along on Monday to wire up our Immersion Heater.

 Saturday 9^th May

 

Yesterday, with not much planned regarding clearing out the boat, we took Alex over to Daventry Country Park and then settled down for a lazy day.

 Sunday 10^th May

 We met Pauline as we were walking through the village and asked if she and Chris would like to join us at the club today. She said she would have words with Chris, but that it would mean staying longer than they had planned. Sadly they decided to get moving along. However, they will be back for the Boat Show, so we might see them again.

 Monday 11^th May

 Dave Hull should be coming around to connect up our Immersion Heater this morning. Although, having said that, there’s really no telling when that will be. He’s so busy and so popular that there’s no telling what else he has on today.

 Yesterday we ran into a bit of good luck; which makes a nice change when you consider the amount of money we’ve had to shell out of late. As usual, it being a Sunday, we strolled up to the club for a couple of drinks and some snacks. We had just sat down when, out of the blue, our barmaid came over and told us we’d won the meat raffle. This is drawn every week and I usually put in a couple of quid.

 So, we waited until we were about to leave and then called Wendy over and asked her to get our prize out of the freezer. Well, the last time we won anything there was a £10 voucher for the butchers shop in a village some distance away. This time however, we had won a 3.0Kg tray of huge pork chops.

 When we got them back to the boat and waited for them to defrost, we found we had eight of them. So, we now have a pork dinner for almost every day this week. Can’t be bad, can it??

 Today, after Dave has sorted out the Immersion Heater, we’ll probably take a run over to Daventry and dispose of the rest of our rubbish.

 With the Crick Boat Show looming we’ve all been told to remove our cars from our car park to the main one. It seems that the people setting up the displays need our car park for their trucks and things. Later on and prior to the show starting, everybody will have to move their cars to one of the outlying fields. Actually, we’re quite looking forward to the show. The last time we attended was when we found the boat we now live on.

 Tuesday 12^th May

 Dave turned up to wire in our Immersion Heater yesterday which, due to its awkward location, took him about two hours. We let it run for a further hour +, but still no hot water came through.

 At that point we switched it off and took Alex for a walk and, just as we were heading towards the gate, along came Dave and he wasn’t happy with the news. Mind you, that Immersion had been there since 2009, so perhaps it’s no good now.

 Later in the evening, just as we were climbing into bed, Sheila imparted some pearls of wisdom; which I have since emailed to Dave. She tells me that this Immersion Heater MUST be wired into the landline mains and CAN’T be used whilst cruising.

 Now, we know that he actually took a spur off the washing machine switch; assuming, no doubt, that this was also wired to landline mains, when in fact it is wired to the Inverter/Charger.

 These pearls of wisdom I have also imparted to Dave, who probably won’t be happy. It may well be that this makes no difference, but I have a sneaky suspicion that………….!!!

 Anyway, we’ll see what he has to say when he gets here this morning.

 Thursday 14^th May

 Dave arrived on Tuesday morning and discovered that the reset button on the immersion heater had popped out. This meant that, just for a change, the boating gods were smiling upon us, because we didn’t have to pay for a new one. Hallelujah brother!!!

 Yesterday we drove over to Daventry, topped up with petrol, disposed of a trolley load and a bag full of books, then popped into Tesco for a wee bit of shopping and the latest Eric Clapton disc.

 Today we’ll be taking the bus into Rugby to top up with books from charity shops.

 Already the people are arriving to set up for the forthcoming Boat Show. Our small car park has been taken over and we’ll all be moving our cars to nearby fields. We all hope it will be dry on the weekend of the show.

 Later…… Well, we popped into town, visited a few charity shops, did a wee bit of shopping, had a coffee and tea cake at our favourite coffee shop, and managed to catch the next bus back.

 It’s now 3 pm and raining quite hard, but we really do need to walk the dog and visit the office, so wet weather gear on and off we go.

 But first I’ll post this blog and wish you a very pleasant Friday and weekend.

 All the best from Dave, Sheila and Alex.

 

 

Winter 2014/15: Crick 15

Friday 24^th April to Thursday 14^th May

 Tuesday 28^th April

 Upon our return to Crick last Thursday, I immediately contacted Dave, our engineer, to let him know we were home. After that it was simply a case of tracking him down and arranging for him to check our batteries out, which he did on Friday morning.

 It was then arranged for him to come by on Monday morning, so as to decide when to change to change the batteries over. As it happened, I tracked him down elsewhere in the marina, and he suggested I go along to Midland Chandlers at Braunston and buy the batteries, which we did later in the morning.

 I’m now expecting him to come along this morning and do the necessary.

 Wednesday 29^th April

 Dave came along yesterday and changed our batteries. So far, so good. However, when it came to checking everything was OK, it wasn’t. We had no indication of the state of the starter battery on our Distribution Panel. It took a goodly amount of time before he found a loose connection, which happens sometimes when playing with electrics. Eventually all was well and life returns to normal.

 In a couple of weeks he’ll be along again to connect up our immersion heater, which will save considerably on diesel.

 Saturday 2^nd May

 Took the bus into Rugby on Thursday morning then, in the afternoon, we had a good sort out of clothes. It’s surprising how old bit of clothing is replaced by new, but the old lies around for ages before it’s parcelled up and recycled. In this instance we have a black sack full to take over to the recycling bin in Daventry, which we’ll do sometime next week, on a day when we can take the car out and have some chance of getting back in the carpark.

 Yesterday we made a start on the cupboards and managed to throw out some useless items and fill a shopping bag with stuff for the charity shop. All in all a pretty successful couple of days.

Today, after lunch, we’ll make a start on our bookshelves, which are also overloaded with useless tat, all of which needs to be sitting on a charity shop shelf. We could be pretty busy next week.

 Sunday 3^rd May

 Yesterday was a pretty good day weather-wise, which is more than can be said for last night and this morning, when it’s been raining for most of the time. It has stopped now, but it looks like there’s more to come.

 We have a multi-shelf book case that sits behind our armchairs, and these are what we sorted out yesterday, after our coffee and biscuits of course. After completing this necessary chore, I was amazed at the pile of books we were throwing out. I was even more amazed when I compared that pile to the spaces left over. Somehow I didn’t believe all those books could have been in there!!

 Anyway, we took some of them over to the site wash room, which has book shelves and works on the basis of, take a book and replace it with another one.

 Now, as if that wasn’t enough exercise for one day, we decided to take a walk before lunch. The initial aim was to walk along the towpath to Crick Tunnel and then turn around and make our way back. However, being the adventurous couple that we are, we took a pathway leading up to some fields and followed the Public Footpath signs.

 This all looked innocent enough but, by the time we had completed the walk; which finished at our local Post Office; we had crossed five fields and six stiles. With my dodgy legs that was no mean feat, I can tell you. Still, we all need exercise, but I think I’ll give that particular walk a miss in future.

 Tuesday 5^th May

 Yesterday morning, after our usual walk to the shops for the paper, we set to and sorted out all the gumph under my side of the dinette, and what a load of gumph there was too.

 After re-packaging the books and such from yesterday’s effort, we now had a load more books to sort out. We also had quite a bit of junk too, which went into the skip.

 Today we plan on driving over to Daventry to dispose of the old clothing, along with books and such to the local charity shops.

 I’m not sure when we’ll be tackling Wifey’s side of the dinette, but I don’t suppose we’ll be in the mood for it after our trip to Daventry.

 Thursday 7^th May

 We’ve had two days of horrid weather but, at last it seems to have settled down now. We had a clear out of Wifey’s side of the dinette yesterday, and now we have to take it the stuff we don’t want into Rugby this morning.

 Dave Hull should be along on Monday to wire up our Immersion Heater.

 Saturday 9^th May

 

Yesterday, with not much planned regarding clearing out the boat, we took Alex over to Daventry Country Park and then settled down for a lazy day.

 Sunday 10^th May

 We met Pauline as we were walking through the village and asked if she and Chris would like to join us at the club today. She said she would have words with Chris, but that it would mean staying longer than they had planned. Sadly they decided to get moving along. However, they will be back for the Boat Show, so we might see them again.

 Monday 11^th May

 Dave Hull should be coming around to connect up our Immersion Heater this morning. Although, having said that, there’s really no telling when that will be. He’s so busy and so popular that there’s no telling what else he has on today.

 Yesterday we ran into a bit of good luck; which makes a nice change when you consider the amount of money we’ve had to shell out of late. As usual, it being a Sunday, we strolled up to the club for a couple of drinks and some snacks. We had just sat down when, out of the blue, our barmaid came over and told us we’d won the meat raffle. This is drawn every week and I usually put in a couple of quid.

 So, we waited until we were about to leave and then called Wendy over and asked her to get our prize out of the freezer. Well, the last time we won anything there was a £10 voucher for the butchers shop in a village some distance away. This time however, we had won a 3.0Kg tray of huge pork chops.

 When we got them back to the boat and waited for them to defrost, we found we had eight of them. So, we now have a pork dinner for almost every day this week. Can’t be bad, can it??

 Today, after Dave has sorted out the Immersion Heater, we’ll probably take a run over to Daventry and dispose of the rest of our rubbish.

 With the Crick Boat Show looming we’ve all been told to remove our cars from our car park to the main one. It seems that the people setting up the displays need our car park for their trucks and things. Later on and prior to the show starting, everybody will have to move their cars to one of the outlying fields. Actually, we’re quite looking forward to the show. The last time we attended was when we found the boat we now live on.

 Tuesday 12^th May

 Dave turned up to wire in our Immersion Heater yesterday which, due to its awkward location, took him about two hours. We let it run for a further hour +, but still no hot water came through.

 At that point we switched it off and took Alex for a walk and, just as we were heading towards the gate, along came Dave and he wasn’t happy with the news. Mind you, that Immersion had been there since 2009, so perhaps it’s no good now.

 Later in the evening, just as we were climbing into bed, Sheila imparted some pearls of wisdom; which I have since emailed to Dave. She tells me that this Immersion Heater MUST be wired into the landline mains and CAN’T be used whilst cruising.

 Now, we know that he actually took a spur off the washing machine switch; assuming, no doubt, that this was also wired to landline mains, when in fact it is wired to the Inverter/Charger.

 These pearls of wisdom I have also imparted to Dave, who probably won’t be happy. It may well be that this makes no difference, but I have a sneaky suspicion that………….!!!

 Anyway, we’ll see what he has to say when he gets here this morning.

 Thursday 14^th May

 Dave arrived on Tuesday morning and discovered that the reset button on the immersion heater had popped out. This meant that, just for a change, the boating gods were smiling upon us, because we didn’t have to pay for a new one. Hallelujah brother!!!

 Yesterday we drove over to Daventry, topped up with petrol, disposed of a trolley load and a bag full of books, then popped into Tesco for a wee bit of shopping and the latest Eric Clapton disc.

 Today we’ll be taking the bus into Rugby to top up with books from charity shops.

 Already the people are arriving to set up for the forthcoming Boat Show. Our small car park has been taken over and we’ll all be moving our cars to nearby fields. We all hope it will be dry on the weekend of the show.

 Later…… Well, we popped into town, visited a few charity shops, did a wee bit of shopping, had a coffee and tea cake at our favourite coffee shop, and managed to catch the next bus back.

 It’s now 3 pm and raining quite hard, but we really do need to walk the dog and visit the office, so wet weather gear on and off we go.

 But first I’ll post this blog and wish you a very pleasant Friday and weekend.

 All the best from Dave, Sheila and Alex.